Rebecca underwent a tympanoplasty on April 9th. Due to chronic untreated ear infections as an infant and young child, she had tubes placed shortly after we got her. When the tubes came out, a large hole in her right eardrum remained. This eardrum was pretty scarred prior to tubes, so it was not surprising to the ENT that this happened. She had about half her eardrum on that side and thus had half her hearing as well. Since language acquisition is still her biggest struggle, we knew that the repair had to be done. The surgeon took a graft of tissue (fascia overlying the masseter muscle just behind her ear) to close the hole. He also cleaned out a lot of scar tissue and inflammation in her mastoid bone. This was a delicate surgery, so it took around 1.5 hours to do. She did great, but did have some nausea and vomiting afterwards, so we were at the hospital pretty much all day. She had to refrain from any strenuous physical activity for about 3 weeks; that's really hard for her. I caught her on the trampoline the day after surgery! She will have her hearing checked in a few months.
Here she is at home after the long day at the hospital. She carried her kitty with her to the hospital. She and I spent the prior afternoon birthday shopping. We went to Build-a-Bear and she picked out the Kitty (that she named "China"). Of course, China had to have a Hannah Montana outfit! :)
The bandage is pretty dramatic, huh? Luckily she got to take it off the next morning.
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